Origen – an Architect of The Novel Cognitive System

This article examines theoretical principles of Origen’s biblical hermeneutics and some fundamental features of his scientific method for the explanation of the scriptural text. In discussing the conceptual ground of biblical hermeneutics, the author focuses on the originality of the great Alexandrian’s cognitive model, contrary to that of Greek Philosophy, predominantly of Platonism, by which he was strongly influenced. The essential peculiarities of Origen’s scholarly thinking are presented as: a) a drastic agnostic point in regard to a mere intellectual quest of mind; b) the relationship of logical-discursive reasoning with biblical evidence as an alternative method of thinking to philosophy; c) biblical evidence as a true premise for attaining the truth through scholarly reasoning. Furthermore, Origen is considered to have played a highly important role in the development of allegorical interpretation of the Bible established in the Alexandrian theological tradition. Although Origen follows his predecessors in acknowledging the significance of historical and moral interpretations of the biblical narrative, his consistent adherence to the Transcendent results in the construction of allegorical metaphysics in a systematic manner. The paper also dwells on the idea of the veiled truth of the Scripture, the reception Paul’s ‘shadow’ theology, being based on Christological economy of revelation, and the novel system of the Christian metaphysics of language constructed by Origen.
After outlining the common conceptual ground, the discourse briefly turns to some main themes which illustrate the techniques of the Alexandrian’s scholarly hermeneutics: ‘equivocality’ and ‘paradox’, multiplication of the object and its perigraphy, the biblical language and an articulation of a biblical interpreter. The author of this paper maintains that in his enterprise to corroborate the records of faith by constructing a scholarly doctrine, Origen not only founded biblical hermeneutics, but also constructed the first systematic exposition of the Christian faith – that is, Christian reflexive theology.